Trail of Tears
by Hawkflight7
Summary: He kept looking her way not sure if he wanted her to see the longing in his eyes or not. But Hope did know one thing, he wanted to show her that he wasn't going to give up so easily.


**Trail of Tears**

**Summary: He kept looking her way not sure if he wanted her to see the longing in his eyes or not. But Hope did know one thing, he wanted to show her that he wasn't going to give up so easily.**

**So, I'm going to put up a thing on my profile so everyone knows what order to read these HopexLight one-shots in. And, here is the next one of the collection. It should be enlightening. There's some suggestive material here so it's rated m.**

Hope frowned, looking down at the metal floor he currently sat on same as the others. It hummed beneath them as Atomos moved through pre-made tunnels leading deeper into the Mah'habara. They had to be moving fast he knew from the sound coming through the metal but everyone was still, more or less than him anyways.

He moved his head back up slowly to glance around at them. Vanille was playing some Pulse-style game with Fang while talking to sazh about the rules and how it was played. She kept pointing to the little mini rock discs that lay scattered between the pair. Her voice easily filled the whole space, that was rather small. Hope curled his legs up even more as the ground shook and he almost rolled forward, one of the discs spun across the metal letting out little sparks when the edges caught on to hit the toe of a pale brown foot. He kept his head down watching as it moved in a simple flicking manner so the disc spun back towards the other four. Fang was now laughing while Snow made a comment and tried to urge Lightning over towards them once again but she stayed in her stance back to the curved wall resting against it. A soft smile came to his lips when she refused to move again and even ridiculed the hand-to-hand fighter and his antics.

She was barely a foot away in this confined space, of course he was closer to the group than her but he was the closest to her. He had done that on purpose actually. Ever since that day in the tunnel he wanted to apologize for frightening her like that. But, then he always backed out of it. That anger rising within him again.

He just couldn't forget the way she walked off after he healed her wounds. Yes, the fact that he rested his lips on her skin was uncalled for but he hadn't been able to stop himself at the time. Besides, she hadn't even said thank you. Just left without a word, slipping back into the water and when he came out from behind the waterfall to follow after her she wouldn't talk to him the rest of the day. In fact, she hadn't talked to him since then.

Only for those few moments in a fight was there any communication between them, and that was just her little hand movements. Their own military signals that had been established back in the Vile Peaks. Though, it had taken awhile after they were out of that junkyard for him to get a grip on the various signals seeing how the differences in them were so subtle. It was like that so other human enemies they ran into or creatures with high intelligence wouldn't be able to catch on as to what they were saying to eachother.

And that small bit wasn't enough for him. He wanted to hear her voice again. He wanted to speak with her again. He wanted to crack stupid jokes to try and make her laugh-she never had, though that small smile that had appeared once had made him grin. Was it really so bad that he wanted those things of her? Little simple pleasures, that was all. She wasn't even looking at him.

His fist tightened and he flinched as the edge of a scale cut into his hand. He quickly loosened it again but not enough to see what lay in his palm surrounded by his enclosed fingers. Hope knew what it was. He had made it for her. Wanted to give it to her but since she kept avoiding him he hadn't gotten the chance. That and the others were around the past couple days. What was going on between him and Light wasn't any of their buisness and besides, if he gave the creation to her infront of them she was even less likely to accept it after all that had happened this past week.

Leaning back he rested his head on the metal, closing his eyes and listening to the fal'Cie humming around them while trying to block out the noise of Sazh's sudden shouting of him not being that old. He sighed softly, Vanille must have made a comment on his age again...

Hope opened his left eye slowly so the others wouldn't see that he was looking at Lightning from their angle. He wished he knew her real name. Something only one other person knew if his hunch was correct. Her sister, Serah. His gaze slid up from her boot, the same one he had slipped off when her ankle snapped, hiding the pretty skin beneath it. The taste was still fresh in his memory. He wanted to apologize all over again. To make amends and try to to right things between them even though he knew he had gone to far this time for things to be normal again. He didn't really care about that though, she had treated him like a child before and he didn't want to go back to being like that. He wanted for her to... He closed his eye again just before his line of sight reach beyond her knee. Hope wasn't sure what he wanted. More of that taste from before would be nice.

He licked his lips and his eyes sprung open a second later when Snow's voice addressed him.

"You hungry or tired, kid?"

Hope frowned at the word kid but didn't mention it otherwise to the bigger man. Snow hadn't listened to him when he said to stop calling him that and how he didn't like that nickname the last few thousand times anyway. "No." he said with a huff.

"Someone's grumpy again."

"Shh," Fang replied, a faint slap sound filled the air when she swatted him. "He's been like that for the past couple days." The woman quickly went back to her game after telling Snow to basically leave off of him. Atleast she had some sense to know that he was just in a foul mood because he was in a tough spot. Literally.

With her so close he wanted to reach out and grab Light but he wouldn't dare. For one, the others were there, and two, she would probably give him a nasty glare if he moved any closer than he already was. He didn't want to have that directed at him when she looked his way. What he wanted was for her eyes to soften and that small delicate looking mouth-when she wasn't angry anyway-to curve up at the sight of him. No malevolence was suppose to be in that gaze. It wasn't like that in his dreams afterall. Which was why he was curled into such a tight ball right now, with his legs raised, arms wrapped around them, his chin resting on his knees. To take up as little space as possible.

He closed his right eye so he didn't have to look at them playing their game. His attention shifted back to Lightning, eyes trailing up the curve of her leg past her knee to the thigh.. He bit as his lip as his face grew a little hot. From this angle he could see the inward curve of her thigh normally hidden by the shorts. Forcing himself not to draw any set of eyes to himself he looked up past the tan fabric to the thin patch of stomach that showed, gaze lingering on the ring pierced through her belly button. His fingers twitched, he _really_ wanted to play with it for some inexplainable reason. Talking himself mentally out of such actions he looked past the metal buckles keeping her white coat over her body, up over the belt below her chest past another metal buckle. His breath almost caught in his throat to see her chest slowly rising and falling with steady regular breaths. His eyes settled on the slim line of the metal zipper that was only half-open, before moving up to trace the curve of her neck and the thin slope of her chin. When his gaze came to her lips he couldn't make himself look anywhere else like before when he knew his mind was wandering into forbidden waters.

The floor lurched to a stop, the doors hissing open. It was probably the only thing that could have distracted at him at the point. He had been imagining pressing his own to hers again and what it would feel like to have her return the gesture. As things were he looked away now that he had the chance pushing the images away mentally.

Snow, Fang, Sazh, and Vanille departed first, the younger girl dancing forward onto solid ground. He watched them all disembark before turning to Light to see she was walking across the metal with her boots clicking against it to go out before he could open his mouth to say a single word. He stood up quickly, hands curled at his sides and followed her out.

He stepped out onto hard brown gray rock that had random spots where gray grass would shoot up from the rocky terrain, thin patches of water were dotted the surface. They were on a rocky outcrop looking over the tunnel below them. A sliver of sky could be seen overhead from a gap between the rock faces. He glanced at sky grateful to be out from the caves now since he had been thinking that Atomos was taking them further into the abandoned mines of Pulse.

A shout came from ahead, obviously Vanille as she called for them to hurry up. Fang and the others of course ran after the girl, but Lightning was walking at a normal pace.

We're alone. Hope walked a bit faster to notice her own pace picked up when his shoes fell more rapidly over the stone. With a scowl he slowed back down watching as she didn't. He let out an audible sigh to which she-of course-didn't answer. She disapeared into a cave opening the others had just gone through and he kicked a rock while he walked behind her, the distance increasing with her fast steps. If anyone was acting like a kid it was her, he thought to himself. He could only see her silhoute ahead because of the softly glowing green patches of stone spaced out on the ground. The way it illuminated her skin just reminded him of how beautiful she had looked in the cave beyond the waterfall when the stone glowed all sorts of colors.

Setting his shoulders back with new determination sparking in his eyes he started walking fast to catch up with her. The sound of falling water ahead made his steps slow for a moment but he shook his head and continued on the twisting pathway. It opened up a few seconds later onto slick rock. Looking around the brightened area he saw atleast five seperate waterfalls pouring into the underground spring from gaps in the ceiling which light poured through as well.

She was already halfway across the first expanse of rock to a second raised rock. It was then he broke out in a run after noticing the others at the far end. This was probably the only chance he would get anyways might as well try to use it. Reaching out he reached toward her arm to clasp his fingers around her wrist efficently pulling her to a stop. "Light-" he began stopping short when she ripped her arm from his grip.

"What?" her voice came out in more of an animalistic growl and he flinched before turning his head up slowly to see her glaring down at him. That's exactly what he didn't want to see. "There's no reason in the world for _you_ to talk to me."

He bit into his lip to stop the small tremble there. "I-i just wanted to," he thrust his right hand forward that was still curled around the item hidden within. "give you this." he opened his palm. The silver chain flashed in the light, in the middle of the chain a deep green scale dipped into a curve which held a white crystal in the center in the shape of a tear.

Glancing up at her he saw her face was still as stone. "Why?"

His heart clentched at the single word. "I made it for you." He said keeping his eyes locked on her face even though it didn't change at all. His throat tightened and he swallowed hard. "I'm really sorry for... what happened before." He was silent for a couple seconds. "I..." he tried to push the lie between his teeth. That he regretted his actions but couldn't. He didn't regret them one bit. Hope sighed and pushed his hand with the necklace closer towards her.

She still didn't move to take it from him, infact, with how intently she was looking at him he wasn't even sure if she had noticed the action. "That's all? You're sorry. That's all you have to say after molesting my person?" he flinched at how bluntly she spoke about it. "What else then? You were going to say something else right?" her eyes were narrowed at him, arms having gone up to cross under her chest and he glanced down at her chest for a moment when the action made them push up a bit. His face flaming he looked back to her to see the spark of anger in them.

"I, ummm," he shifted on his feet. "I didn't mean to." The harsh glint in her eye made him back up a step. "Really. I just... lost control for a moment. I'm sorry, really-"

"You lost control. Of what exactly?" she advanced a step toward him and he scooted back in response the anger in her eyes scaring him. "What could possibly be your excuse for doing that to me?" she snarled and he recoiled into the rock he found his back pressed against. "Huh?" There was a flash of teeth as they gritted against eachother. "You had no buisness holding my leg up to your mouth. You're a child." she spat the word out with such disgust that he sunk further into the rock. "You shouldn't have ever touched me with anything other than your hand to heal the bone. Licking, biting, kissing at my leg is not something a normal child does. I don't know what your problem is, but that is never going to happen again. If it's some weird relapse because of what happened to your mother and becoming a I'Cie. It's not the way to deal with it!"

His teeth clentched at the mention of his mother. "My mother has nothing to do with this! Neither does becoming a I'Cie! I already got over that. Operation Nora isn't commencing anymore, remember?" He narrowed his eyes right back at her a small smirk forming on his lips when he saw the surprise flash in her eyes from his reaction that she hadn't expected. "And afterall I've gone through how can you call me a child? You were right there for most of it." he snapped thinking about that time she abandoned him back in the Vile Peaks. "You're the one acting like a child trying to bait me!" The words came out of his mouth so fast for a second he was unsure about them but he had reached the conclusion just then, and it felt right. "I'm not going to fall for a cruel trick like that."

"Trick?" Lightning hissed. "I'm just trying to understand your actions! Something has to be wrong with you mentally! It's not normal behavior for one your age. There's no reason for you to be looking at me the way you do either. You can't seriously think I don't notice after you were openly eyeing my breasts."

Hope felt his face flush at her words. He wanted to hit himself for doing that so brazenly. "Then don't draw attention to them by pushing them up! If you don't like me looking at them then don't give me a reason to!"

"Give you a reason?" Her eyes flashed but this time he stood his ground. "I would never give you a reason to look at me like a lecher! To drag your tongue across my skin like that! To nibble on me like some damned animal!" Her arms fell from her chest and he glanced at them again to have a burning feeling on his cheek a second later. "I thought I told you not to look at me that way you insolent child!"

He blinked, raising a hand to touch at the harsh red skin and rub his palm against the spot where her hand had striked. His anger burned inside him with a newfound rage. "You didn't have to hit me like that! And I'm not a child! How many times do I have to say it? Just because I'm young doesn't mean I don't understand other things! I understand perfectly well that what I feel for you is more than just some animal lust as you would probably call it! So what if I can't control my emotions as well as you!" At her sudden step back he stepped forward, a smirk quickly growing on his face. He had hit on something there. "You like me to right?" He challenged. "So what's the problem?"

Judging from the light shade of pink on her cheeks he had hit the mark. "What? I don't like you at all! How could you even think something like that! Say it! I'm your senior and you're... did you hit your head before crawling out from behind the waterfall or something!"

"And I'm younger than you. Is that what you mean? That I disgust you." He started walking toward her and she moved back quickly as if trying to get away from him. "That you disgust yourself for wanting to do 'adult' things with me? Which by the way, I've had dreams of." He wasn't joking either. The flash of an image of the what he had imagined her naked went through his mind. "Of you, writhing beneath me, calling out my name as I do all sorts of things to you." His eyes traced over the way her chest fell and rose a bit quicker, the way her cheeks grew warm. The real look of arousal in her eyes was better than anything he could imagine.

Hope kept walking forward while her mouth opened and closed. "You-you-what?" It was all she managed to get out before he noticed her foot hit a part of rock and she crashed onto her back a second later.

He wasted no time in crouching over her, legs pinned to the ground on either side of her stomach. "I like you Light. What's so wrong about that?" His voice had lost the fire in it and his eyes had softened. He reach out a hand to touch her chin, his fingers glowing green as the healing power poured from him and he concentrated it to her back.

"Everything." The word sounded softer than a whisper.

"When you're twenty five and I'm eighteeen it won't seem like such a big age gap." he leaned over her body. "There's couples out there with a ten plus age gap. Ours is only by seven years. It's small in comparison." Hope stopped short with his face hovering over hers. His lips were just inches from hers but he didn't bend his head down to meet hers and he didn't intend to. "Just take the necklace and wear it if you feel the same away about me. Okay?" He drew back his fist opening from when it had clentched to drop the necklace inbetween her breats before he got off of her stomach and walked in the direction the others had disapeared in.


End file.
